Mountain Man Brewing

DESCRIPTIONChris Prangel, a recent MBA graduate, has returned home to West Virginia to manage the marketing operations of the Mountain Man Beer Company, a family-owned business he stands to inherit in five years. Mountain Man brews just one beer, Mountain Man Lager, also known as "West Virginia's beer" and popular among blue-collar workers. Due to changes in beer drinkers' taste preferences, the company is now experiencing declining sales for the first time in its history. In response, Chris wants to launch Mountain Man Light, a "light beer" formulation of Mountain Man Lager, in the hope of attracting younger drinkers to the brand. However, he encounters resistance from senior managers. Mountain Man Lager's brand equity is a key asset for Mountain Man Brewing Company. The question is whether Mountain Man Light will enhance it, detract from it, or irreversibly damage it. Learning Objective:

To explore brand equity: its creation and using brands as platforms for growth; the risks and benefits of a product line extension (including congruent vs. incongruent extensions) using an existing brand name; and the concepts of cannibalization and brand alienation. To practice marginal analysis, breakeven analysis, net present value (NPV) analysis, and sensitivity analysis, emphasizing the difficulty in choosing between qualitative and quantitative information in making key strategic decisions. Subjects Covered:

Problem Statement: Mountain Man Brewing (MMB) has been successful with only one beer, Mountain Man Lager, but consumption has decreased. The decrease in sales for this beer has caused a decrease in profits, since it is their only product. Mountain Man needs to consider a change in their positioning strategy to increase sales and profits to keep the business successful.

Alternative #1: Create, promote and sell Mountain Man Lager Light Pros: It gives them the use of their name that is already well known and liked in their current market area. It creates a light beer for the younger target market that drinks light beers. Cons: It could result in customers switching from regular to light, which would decrease sales of the Lager even more to cannibalize that product. It could also make customers disappointed with them following the trends. It would not even put a dent in the competition for the major name brands. They risk losing their current reputation for being unique with a good stand-alone product, which may also push dedicated customers away.

Alternative #2: Create, promote and sell a new light beer, but use a different name Pros: It won’t take away from the name of the Mountain Man Lager. It still gives them a product that is more common for a new market of younger drinkers. It gives them the ability to purse the larger market for light beers that has greatly grown. Cons: It may still take away from their own Lager beer with current customers switching to the light beer. It still would hardly put a dent in the power of the major competitors, if at all, so it is not likely to pull away a large amount of their competitors’ sales to their own product.

Alternative #3: Keep only the Lager beer and broaden the target market into more States Pros: It keeps their product focus on their successful beer and keeps them unique. It keeps them from having to create something new and start from scratch...

Mountain Man Brewing CompanyMountain Man Brewing Company (MMBC) also known as “West Virginia’s Beer”. MMBC developed its brand equity as a symbol of toughness, authenticity, quality and uniqueness this with several other factors made MMBC successful. This legacy was started by Guntar Prangel in...

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Case 2: MountainManBrewing Company
Prepared for: Marketing 181
Date: February 9, 2011
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Question 1: There are many factors that have enabled MMBC to create a strong brand. These include: taste, perceived quality, image, tradition, and authenticity. Taste is achieved through a selection of rare Bavarian hops and unusual strains of barley creating a defined MountainMan quality. In addition, MountainMan Lagers’ distinctively bitter flavor and higher alcohol content sets this beer apart from its competitors, which uniquely contributes to the company’s brand equity. To complement the richer stronger taste, a dark colored bottle is used to enhance perceived taste and quality. The 1925 original design of coal miners imprinted on the front promotes tradition, regional loyalty, and authenticity. By association the picture links the blue-collar worker to the image; therefore MMBC is able to target consumers of age 35+.
MountainManBrewing Company is able to distinguish its beer apart from its competitors mainly through its high-perceived quality and brand image strongly appealing to West Virginia population where MountainMan Lager is also known as “West Virginia Beer.” In addition, MMBC has a...

...Running Head: MOUNTAINMANMountainManBrewing Company Case
The purpose of this case study is to explore the implications for expanding the products offered by MountainManBrewing Company (MMBC) from one product, MountainMan Lager, to adding a Light version of the beer. This paper will evaluate the following:
1. The positioning statement of MMBC; including what has made MMBC successful and how MMBC distinguishes itself from competitors. I will argue that quality and authentic West Virginia family recipe created a brand that differentiates the lager from competitors.
2. How these factors enabled MMBC to create such a strong brand; and why, despite its strong brand, MMBC was experiencing a decline in 2005. I will show that the decline is due to changes in beer drinking patterns, markets, and demographics in the region as well as the U.S. in general.
3. An evaluation of whether or not to launch MountainMan Light. I will explore the pros and cons of creating a light version of the brew and other strategic options for growth if this brand extension is not launched or if the launch is unsuccessful. I will demonstrate that launching a light beer product shows promise for improved profit through 2010, but that another strategy should be under development...

...﻿Answers 1
There are several factors that have enabled MountainManBrewing Company (MMBC) to create a strong brand and set itself at par with its competitors. These include: taste, perceived quality, image, tradition, and authenticity.
MountainMan brewery carries a legacy in a mature business.
Recent survey in West Virginia with a 67% response rate rated MountainMan Lager as the “Best Known Regional Beer”
70% consumed at home
Mountain Lager won “Best Beer in West Virginia” for the 8th straight year.
A small percentage of MMBC’s blue-collar customers accounted for a large percentage of sales.
Taste is achieved through a selection of rare Bavarian hops and unusual strains of barley creating a defined MountainMan quality.
Additionally, MountainMan Lagers’ distinctively bitter flavour and higher alcohol content sets this beer apart from its competitors, which uniquely contributes to the company’s brand equity.
MountainManBrewing Company is able to distinguish its beer apart from its competitors mainly through its high-perceived quality and brand image strongly appealing to West Virginia population where MountainMan Lager is also known as “West Virginia Beer.”
MMBC is also able to distinguish itself from competitors by...

...1. What is MountainManBrewing Company’s positioning relative to its competitors?
MountainManBrewing Company (MMBC) is a 2nd tier domestic beer manufacturer based out of West Virginia. MMBC is positioned as a leader among local brewers in the East Central region, being one of the four regional breweries still operational in West Virginia. MMBC brews only one type of beer – the MountainMan Lager, a dark bitter tasting beer. Target market for the product is middle aged men from the blue collared working class. Branding includes an image of coal miners on the bottle suggesting a strong taste and reinforcing target market segments to a niche. The beer sells mainly in off-premise locations. There is no variant of MountainMan Lager available.
Although MMBC is a local brewer it really competes against national brands such as Anheuser Busch and Coors. Priced at the same level as national brands, MMBC’s product is a legacy brew and enjoys high brand awareness in the regions it sells the beer. The brand also enjoys high brand loyalty in its target market segment against national brands. MMBC has been able to achieve this brand equity without significant spending on traditional advertising but rather pursuing on grass-roots advertising.
The company however is losing market share and revenues in line with the lager market. Since MMBC does...

...Adrien
Julien Gravaud
MountainManBrewing Company: Bringing the brand to light
Introduction: MountainMan Beer’s Success:
The United States is the largest beer consumer in the world with the East Central region having sales of 18.3%. MountainManBrewing Company is a family owned brewery located in West Virginia that has been strong presence as lager brand in this region since its establishment in 1925. Ever since, it has marketed towards the blue collar, middle to lower income population in the region with its bitter, and higher alcohol content lager. Over the years its brand identity has been associated as an old school, regional brewing company and its consistency in taste and blend. There have been multiple instances where 3 generations of families have grown up consuming MountainMan Beer and felt that MountainManBrewing Company has retained the quality ever since its introduction. It has therefore, created a legacy as “West Virginia’s Beer” and a “Working man’s beer” and has not deviated from its core branding, maintaining itself as a single product company.
Nevertheless, there are some mains problems to underline and analyse.
How to stop the annual decline ?
How to introduce a light beer without affecting the brand image and the sentiments of the...

...1.
What are the critical success factors for MMBC? What are its competitive advantages?
Ans. The critical factors for the success of MountainManBrewing Company (MMBC) are:
* Brand awareness among blue collar customers
* The quality in terms of smoothness, percentage of water content, drinkability (distinctly bitter flavour, higher than average alcohol content) which created a unique brand equity
* Branding activities done by MMBC such as establishing an independent sales force to capture the market in off-premise locations
* Very high sole brand loyalty rate of 53%
The competitive advantages are:
* Top in the market for the past 50 years in the eastern region with a brand image of West Virginia’s best beer
* 75+ - year-old brand with a loyal, blue-collar clientele
* Single product targeted at blue collar workers above 45 years old creating a brand awareness as a quality brewers from the very early times as 1925
2. Elaborate on the factors influencing brand equity of MMBC.
Ans. The factors influencing brand equity are:
* Independent, family-owned brewery creating a connection with consumers who don’t trust ‘big business’
* Distinctive taste giving the impression of being for blue collar workers
* Higher alcohol content making it preferred among older men
* Image as a regional beer among consumers in Eastern region
* Produced by a company established for over 75 years...

...﻿Situation Analysis
MountainManBrewing Company (MMBC) was founded in 1925 by Guntar Prangel. Mr. Prangel used an old family recipe to brew a bitter, full flavored lager, which is the pride and joy of MMBC. MMBC uses unique barley and hops to create their masterpiece (See Appendix A).
MMBC generated a little over $50 million in gross revenue while producing 520,000 barrels to distributors in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and West Virginia. West Virginia is the native state that MMBC is located and distributes its lager. MountainMan Lager was the best-known regional beer in West Virginia and has won “Best Beer in West Virginia” for the eighth consecutive year. They were also selected “America’s Championship Lager” at the American Beer Championship (Case MMBC).
MMBC targets hard working blue-collar males that prefers bitter fuller-flavored beers. There are potential market segments in young drinkers that are between the ages of 21-27 who does not have any brand loyalty or preference. Young drinkers preferred light beer and this was one of the weakness MMBC had with its product offering (Case MMBC).
MMBC faces tough competition from major brands like, Anheuser Busch, Miller Brewing Company, and Adolf Coors. These companies accounted for 74% of 2005 beer shipments in Mountain Man’s region (Case MMBC). There are also imports, domestic, and craft breweries...